Hi there,
I noticed this week that my laptop has been slow when browsing the internet. Â I check the download speed with an online test and it is a little below 1mbps. Â I also have a desktop computer, but it doesn't seem as slow as the laptop. Â Shouldn't both computers have the same download and upload speed since they are connected to the same router?
Difference in download and upload speeds
There is no difference between an upload an download speed,except the direction of the file transfer
.But upload speed is usually slower than downloading speed because most of the people tend to do downloading more than uploading,mostly internet users download different kinds of files,like movies,music,applications,programs,rather than uploading that is why internet provider give more priority on the downloading speed rather than the uploading speed because internet users download more than upload.
By the way uploading is sending a copy of your files to a website for examples,posting your pictures to social networking sites its a form of uploading.On the other hand downloading is the process on which you copy a files from a network or website going to your personal computer, for example you buy songs on iTunes,your going to download it after you purchase it.
You can determine your speed by testing it on a website that tells your download and upload speed like speedtest.net.
Difference in download and upload speeds
Hello Kyle.
Yes. Â Both computers should theoretically have the same download and upload speed. Â However, you should also consider the following:
1.  The presence of any applications that may be sharing the bandwidth at the time of your speed test.  It is possible that some application is downloading something in the background while you were running the speed test.  Some of these applications are download managers, your web browser downloading a browser update, your antivirus downloading definition or program updates, or even your operating system downloading updates and hotfixes.
2.  The QoS setting of your router.  Make sure that your QoS setting is equal for both connections.
3.  Your operating system's network settings.  Various parameters in your network settings can have an effect on it's network speed.  Your laptop might have un-optimized settings compared to your desktop.
Hope this helps!
